Sinop, Turkey

Sinop, historically known as Sinope (Ancient Greek: Σινώπη, Sinōpē), is a city on the isthmus of İnce Burun (İnceburun, Cape Ince) and on the Boztepe Peninsula, near Cape Sinope (Sinop Burnu, Boztepe Cape, Boztepe Burnu) which is situated on the northernmost edge of the Turkish side of the Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey. It is the seat of Sinop Province and Sinop District. Its population is 57,404 (2022).

Over a period of approximately 2,500 years, Sinope has at various times been settled by Colchians and then the Greeks (in the late 7th, late 5th, and 4th–3rd centuries BC) and by Turkic people beginning in the 13th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was also settled by the muhacir who immigrated from the Balkans and Caucasus.

The Greek colony of Sinope (Greek: Σινώπη, romanized: Sinṓpē) was founded by Ionians from the city of Miletus. Sinope issued its own coinage, founded colonies, and gave its name to a red earth pigment called sinopia, which was mined in Cappadocia for use throughout the ancient world. Some scholars have dated the earliest Greek colonization of Sinope to the 7th c. BC, while others have proposed an earlier date in the 8th c. While literary evidence exists supporting earlier settlement, archaeological evidence has been found of Greek settlement around the Black Sea region beginning in the late 7th century.

Sinope was strategically located among the trade routes that were developing on the southern Coast of the Black Sea, but remained relatively isolated from other inland communities until the 4th century BC. There is literary evidence of early links between Colchis and Sinope in mythological tradition. Strabo's writings link the legendary founder of Sinope, Autolycus, with Jason and the Argonauts. Polybius described Sinope as being "on the way to Phasis". The Persian Achaemenid Empire's northward expansion in the 4th century disrupted Sinope's control over its eastern colonies, including Trapezus (present day Trabzon). The satrap Datames briefly occupied the city around 375 BC. There is archaeological evidence of increased economic activity between the port city of Sinope and the surrounding inland areas during between 4th and 1st c. BC. Sinope appears to have maintained its independence from the dominion of Alexander the Great, and with the help of Rhodes turned back an assault led by Mithridates II of Pontus in 220 BC. Sinope eventually fell to Pharnaces I in 183 BC, after which it became the capital of the Pontic Kingdom.

The Roman general Lucullus conquered Sinope in 70 BC, and Julius Caesar established a Roman colony there, Colonia Julia Felix, in 47 BC. Mithradates Eupator was born and buried at Sinope, and it was the birthplace of Diogenes; of Diphilus, poet and actor of the New Attic comedy; of the historian Baton; and of the second-century Christian heretic Marcion.

After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Sinope remained with the Eastern Roman Empire. Its history in the early Byzantine period is obscure, except for isolated events: it was used by Justinian II as a base from which to reconnoitre Cherson, participated in the rebellion of the Armeniac Theme in 793, was the site of Theophobos' proclamation as emperor by his Khurramite troops in 838, and suffered its only attack by the Arabs in 858.

In 1081, the city was captured by the Seljuk Turks, who found there a sizeable treasury, but Sinope was soon recovered by Alexios I Komnenos, ushering a period of prosperity under the Komnenian dynasty. After the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, it was captured for the Empire of Trebizond by David Komnenos, until the Seljuk Turks of Rûm successfully captured the city in 1214. The city returned briefly to Trapezuntine rule in 1254, but returned to Turkish control in 1265, where it has remained since.

After 1265, Sinop became home to two successive independent emirates following the fall of the Seljuks: the Pervâne and the Jandarids. During his march on Trebizond, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II overawed Ismail, the emir of Sinop, and forced him to surrender the city without a fight. Mehmet took possession in late June 1461, exiling Ismail to Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv) in northern Thrace.